


Happiness, and I Guess, All the Things You've Always Pined For

by seventhTense



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akira Does Not Handle His Mental Illness Well, Akira Gets Roasted A Lot, Akira Tries To Be Sneaky And Gets Roasted A Lot Anyways, Featherman References, Goro Gets Embarrassed A Lot, Goro Tries To Be Cool And Gets Embarrassed A Lot Anyways, M/M, Stalking, Unhealthy Impulses, gift-giving, half-prose/half-chatfic, valentine's day fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-19 14:24:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22712230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seventhTense/pseuds/seventhTense
Summary: One day, towards the end of summer, Goro Akechi comes home to find a package lying on his doorstep.One day, towards the end of summer, Akira Kurusu gets depressed enough to do something very stupid on impulse, and is so much of a nervous wreck that he continues to do it several more times.These two events may or may not be related.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 15
Kudos: 232





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> No warnings here, other than some good-hearted boys being very unhealthy in their habits and impulses. Enjoy!

You: Yo, Futaba

Futaba: yooo

You: I need your help with something kinda...

You: sketchy

You: and you’re the only person I can go to

Futaba: dude i am not gonna help you hire another darkweb hitman, i told you i’m out of that business for good

You: Uh

Futaba: Oh wait, that was someone else

Futaba: Proceed!

You: ...

You: I’m gonna pretend that didn’t happen and just go on with my thing

Futaba: Wise man

Futaba: So, how can my naughty little fingers be of use to you today

You: Futaba

Futaba: Yeah, re-read that one just now

Futaba: Shutting up, go ahead 

You: Thank god

You: So, with as few follow-up questions as to why I’m asking as possible

You: Would you be able to hack into Goro Akechi’s browsing history and send it to me?

Futaba: Holy shit?

You: Specifically just the shopping sites he goes to, amazon or auction sites, that sort of thing

You: idk how hard it is to sift those out of the rest of the sites he visits though

Futaba: Buddy

Futaba: I’ve gone through dozens of politicians’ browsing history, digging up all the juiciest, nastiest bits in there

Futaba: We used to do that kinda shit all the time back in medjed, getting Dork Detective’s shit is child’s play

Futaba: but, uh

Futaba: that’s a pretty wild ask there, buddy

You: Yeah, this is where the whole ‘as few follow up questions as possible’ part comes in

Futaba: Okay, the fewest possible questions is...

Futaba: ...calculating...

You: jesus christ

Futaba: ...two!

You: this is gonna suck

You: Shoot

Futaba: Thank you, sir!

Futaba: Question One:

Futaba: Why the fuck do you want me to hack this dude?

You: because i’m depressed and an idiot

You: next

Futaba: ...well, you never said you’d give me helpful answers, so I’ll take it!

You: shit, I never said I’d give you any answers, I could have just not said anything...

Futaba: Too late, sucker!

Futaba: Next!

You: goddamnit

You: what’s question two then

Futaba: Seek help!

You: ...that’s... not a question

Futaba: Nope!

Futaba: But yeah bud. get some therapy

Futaba: trust me, hacking some local hottie’s browsing history isn’t a great sign

Futaba: not speaking from experience here, but medjed had a LOT of walking train wrecks in its ranks pulling that kind of shit and it did NOT end well

You: way ahead of you, Futaba

Futaba: whoa, really?

Futaba: like, you’re already looking into therapists?

You: well, no

Futaba: 👀

You: but I tell myself to find a therapist, like

You: ten times a day

You: that’s practically the same thing

Futaba: ...hoo boy

You: Boss?!

You: How’d you get Futaba’s phone?

Futaba: shut up, dumbass

You: 😇

Futaba: ugh, i’ll help you, but i’m totally gonna bug you about this again later

You: as long as you don’t mind me bugging you about the exact same thing,  
miss recently-an-agoraphobic-shut-in

Futaba: bruh ive been got therapy

You: Really?

Futaba: yuh

Futaba: there’s a shitton of online shit avaliable these days, it’s not bad

Futaba: its not great, but its not bad

You: huh

Futaba: anyways, go grind some beans for a bit while I hack this nerd’s shopping history, i guess????

Futaba: i’ll text you a link to download the info once i’ve compiled it

You: sweet, thanks futaba!

Futaba: yeah yeah

\---

Goro really wished he didn’t live on the fourth god damned floor.

It had been a long and hard enough day already; idiots at school making fun of how studious he was, idiots at the station making fun of how young he was, idiots from Shido’s cavalcade of criminals telling him to go kill other idiot criminals, and worst of all, a text from Shido giving him ‘constructive criticism’ on his latest interview appearance. Goro hadn’t even had time to stop by Leblanc for a cup of coffee and some half-decent company, only getting home now, at almost 8 at fucking night.

He was exhausted, tired, grumpy, and honestly would happily set fire to the whole apartment building if it meant the lower three stories would collapse and he wouldn’t have to climb all these fucking stairs. If he lived past Shido’s downfall, the next apartment he got would be one on the first damn floor, or one in a building with a fucking elevator.

Seriously.

He mounted the final few steps to the fourth floor, and turned the corner out of the stairwell, thanking the stars that his apartment was at least just two rooms down the hall from here-

-and froze. Outside of his apartment was a medium-sized cardboard box, emblazoned with all the dumb labeling and printing that Amazon put on their shipping materials these days. He walked over very carefully to it, getting a look at the box from all angles. It looked... like a normal Amazon box, but...

Well, Goro was very accustomed to living on a tight budget- he hadn’t had to do so for a couple years now, ever since he started getting regular, paid TV appearances and, more importantly, since he figured out how to grind through the lower levels of Mementos and gather up all the yen the Shadows dropped, but still. A youth full of poverty and no parental figures to support him gave Goro a very keen understanding of how to budget out what little cash he had, and habits like that died hard.

All of which was to say that he did not remember ordering anything recently, certainly nothing this sizeable. That left a very small number of options for how this got delivered to his door- and looking at the label, it was indeed addressed specifically to him, not just to his apartment number, but to him specifically, his name and everything written out in black and white.

There were a few possible explanations.

Option one: one of his neighbors, or his landlady, perhaps, had a sudden stroke of charity, or perhaps a sudden stroke in general, and had ordered him something without telling him. This was extremely unlikely, as he hadn’t said a word to any of his neighbors since he moved in, an abundance of caution for anyone potentially recognizing him and just general misanthropy driving him to avoid them at all costs. His landlady was an even more unlikely candidate- she wasn’t cruel or money-grubbing or anything, but she was quite possibly the most technically illiterate person he had ever encountered. She required each month’s rent to be paid in cash to her directly, and he had seen her stuff the piles of yen into a literal locked chest in the back of her offices, claiming to ‘not trust those banks with their fancy spreadsheets and pagers and three-piece suits. The idea of that woman even knowing what Amazon was was laughable. So, anyone who knew him from the building itself, quite unlikely.

Option two: somehow, despite his extensive, excruciating efforts, his address had leaked online, and this was the first of what would be an avalanche of stupid, vapid ‘gifts’ from his stupid, vapid fanbase. This was unlikely for two reasons- first, he had an alert set on his phone for any spikes in activity involving the words ‘goro akechi’ and ‘address,’ and the only alerts he’d gotten about that in the past several months were the usual random forum threads of people asking about it, and second, the number of his fans had declined quite dramatically in recent months, in direct proportion to the rise of the Phantom Thieves’ popularity. So, fans somehow sending him a gift, very unlikely.

Option three: during one of the nights where Goro couldn’t get to sleep, and stayed up until the asscrack of dawn, scrolling through whatever webpages he could find that caught his interest enough to distract him from the ever-present horror of life, he impulse-bought something for himself and then completely forgot he had done so. Depressingly, that was entirely possible, as Goro was a humiliating mess in his private life on the best of days, but a quick check through his account’s order history on Amazon put the kibosh on that theory right quickly.

Which just left him option four.

Option four: Goro Akechi had a stalker.

He sighed at the inevitable-feeling conclusion, and shook his head rapidly, shaking himself out of the various thoughts he had gotten lost in for some embarrassingly unknown number of minutes just there. Not really having much reason to leave it where it was, Goro bent down and scooped the package up- it was surprisingly light- and fiddled with the lock on his door until it swung open, then shut again as he went inside and kicked it closed.

Goro made his way to the living room and placed the box down delicately on his coffee table, leaving it there while he stowed away all the things he usually stowed away when he got home- briefcase, homework from inside the briefcase, shoes, jacket, gloves, belt- he even decided to trade his button-up and slacks for something more comfortable, some random pair of sweats and an old t-shirt he used when he went rock climbing. That done, he made his way to the kitchen, pulled a frozen pack of chicken yakisoba out of the freezer, and tossed it in the microwave.

After nabbing a glass of water, Goro ran out of shit to do to keep his mind from obsessing over the package, and with a noisy, admittedly somewhat whiny sigh, he went back over to the couch and plopped down. He might as well open it- the thing was clearly all official Amazon packaging, it was very unlikely that someone had somehow fabricated it to _look_ like Amazon packaging and stuffed some sort of poison or something in there, so it was probably fine, and even if it wasn’t, who really cared.

A few minutes of noisy tape-peeling and cardboard-tearing later, and the package was open, leaving Goro face to face with...

...he took it out delicately, carefully, the way one would handle something precious and fragile. It wasn’t fragile, and it was probably only precious to Goro and a few dozen people like him across the globe, but, well... how else could Goro be expected to react?

For months now, he had been trying to find an affordable version of the Feather Black figma they had released at the last WonFes, all to no avail. It was the first piece of high-quality, official Feather Black merch the Featherman team had released in _decades_ , and had sold out barely minutes after it had gone on sale, Goro’s dumb, pathetic internet speed just barely too laggy for him to make it into the queue in time. These days, every re-sale of the figma out there went for fifty thousand yen, at minumum, and Goro had a lot of cash from his trips to Mementos, but not _that_ much to just throw around at a shiny new figma.

And yet, here it was, in mint condition, sent right to his doorstep with no note, no sign of who sent it, nothing. 

Goro made a noise of surprise as his vision suddenly blurred and went murky, only realizing a second or two later that he was crying. He put the figma back in the bubble-wrap-filled box delicately before clawing around for some tissues, swearing at himself for being so stupid and weak.... though he was self-aware enough to understand where he was coming from. Nobody, literally nobody in the world had ever just... given him something this nice, and certainly nobody had ever given him anything nice without several razor-sharp strings attached. Shido had provided the down payment on this apartment, various TV execs under Shido’s thumb had given Goro gift baskets and bottles of champagne with a wink and a finger to their lips, fans had given him boxes of sweets and made horrible little shrines to him, all of them, every last thing given with the clear expectation and understanding that Goro would continue dancing like the sweet, sharp, clever little puppet they all saw him as.

This... this kind of sheer, unexpected, seemingly unconditional _kindness_ was so, so totally foreign to Goro. It was wonderful and truly horrible all at the same time.

The microwave dinged loudly, startling him out of his reverie, and Goro hurriedly wiped the rest of the mess off of his face and went to finish preparing his food. He’d deal with all of this later, he really couldn’t handle it right now. For now, he’d plate his food, put on an episode of the season of Featherman he had been rewat- well, no, that’d probably start the waterworks all over again. He’d plate his food, put on an episode of some dumb shounen anime, eat, do his homework, and sleep.

And tomorrow, he’d get to work finding out who exactly sent him this, and more importantly, almost more importantly than any other investigation he had done since arriving in Tokyo, _why._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day!
> 
> I got the inspiration for a V-day fic like just a couple days ago, wrote that for a bit, then got a better idea, wrote that for a bit, then got this idea, and here we are! The title is from the jazz standard "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," which is pretty much the opposite message of the fic so far, but the line for the title works, so fuck it. I know this doesn't seem super Valentine's Day-ey here at the start, but it definitely is! The boys are unhealthy and sad, but they're trying their best to be sweet and loving and express that, and they'll get there, someday soon!
> 
> I'm still polishing this up, so I've decided to split this into 3 chapters, and I'll post them every week- meaning Chapter 2 is coming next Friday, on 2/21, and I'll finish it up on the following Thursday, on 2/27! 
> 
> Additionally, if you'd like to read more of my stuff, on 2/20 I'll be posting the next chapter of my Childhood Friends AU longfic, [ 'Like The Moon, We Borrow Our Light!' ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21227510) If you'd like to keep up with my writing progress in general, or just hear me talk about how weird it is that cooking videos put so much corn and cheese in so many dishes that objectively don't need them, my Twitter is [ @SevventhSteen! ](https://twitter.com/SevventhSteen)
> 
> Have a lovely day, and remember, like Goro and Akira so often forget, that loving yourself is the most important thing, so give some big ol' heart eyes at your own self today at *least* three times!
> 
> See ya soon!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira falls even deeper into the gift-pit. Goro falls even deeper into his investigative tendencies.
> 
> Until...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No real warnings for this chap, other than more of the same unhealthy stuff from ch 1. Also, if you're confused about what Featherman is (I only learned through fanfic myself), I'll give a brief rundown in the end notes.
> 
> Enjoy!

You: Hey Futaba

Futaba: Heyo

You: Is there some place online where people sell like really rare stuff

You: but, like, a nerd version of that?

You: less like a black market and more like a back alley Animate

Futaba: You mean like darkweb shit?

You: Probably?

You: You know where to find those kinds of sites?

Futaba: Hah, remember who you’re talking to, scrublet. 

Futaba: Of course I do!

You: Awesome!

Futaba: Heheh

Futaba: Damn right I am

You: ...sooo are you gonna tell me how to find the sites?

Futaba: Nope!

You: dude

Futaba: Not unless you tell me why you wanna know so bad

Futaba: I let it pass when you asked about The Littlest Detective  
This Side Of The Pacific last week

Futaba: But not this time buddy boy!

Futaba: Spill the beans, or these lips stay sealed!

You: ugh

You: fair, but uuuuuugh

Futaba: spill it, nerd

Futaba: ive got you by the balls and you know it

You: I was just about to!

You: you don’t need to bring up... ball imagery

You: *shudders*

Futaba: Heheheheheh

You: don’t like that

You: Anyways

You: Basically...

Futaba: ...you still there buddy?

Futaba: Been a couple minutes

You: yeahyeah

You: just hard to say it after this long

You: Basically I have a real big dumb gay crush on Goro

Futaba: oh boy

You: what oh boy

Futaba: nothing, just worrying a lot more about giving  
you his browsing history now

You: its not like that!

You: I don’t know to say it to him

You: I’ve tried like ten times and i always freeze  
up and miss the opportunity each time

You: and then i get embarrassed and ashamed and i can’t  
stop thinking about how i fucked up again for the rest  
of the day

You: and so i try and build myself up and be braver  
the next time and it just happens again!

You: so i guess i just got really depressed and  
desperate about it and i thought like

You: even if im too much of a coward to say it  
to his face, at least i could like...

You: send him gifts and stuff?

You: anonymously, of course but like

You: even if i cant tell him that i like him, at least  
he’ll know that someone out there does

You: and besides, he really deserves some nice stuff for himself

You: dude only ever wears the same three outfits,  
and everything he owns is so

You: just plain and formal. i know its for his ‘image’  
and whatever, but its like he doesnt ever  
get to relax

You: or let himself express his interests

You: he deserves some stuff that makes him feel  
happy just cause its stuff he likes, yknow?

Futaba: Wow

You: wow what???

Futaba: nothing! jeeze, i just thought all that was really sweet is all

Futaba: i mean, worrying in several ways, but also really sweet

Futaba: you’ve got it pretty bad for this guy, huh?

You: ...I really do yeah

Futaba: You don’t have to go into any more detail than  
that, I know how embarrassing this stuff can be to talk  
about, just

Futaba: Promise me you’ll actually start looking into  
some people you can talk to about all this?

Futaba: not to pull some cringey armchair diagnosis shit  
but it sounds like youve got some reeeeeeeal serious  
anxiety issues

Futaba: and probably some other shit too

You: Yeah... I’ll try

You: also... you have experience with this?

You: aren’t you like ten or something

Futaba: Don’t play with fire, punkboy

Futaba: but yeah, basically just imagine what  
would happen if you were

Futaba: A) raised by Sojiro Sakura

Futaba: B) on the web 23 hours out of every day  
since the age of 9

Futaba: C) an avid player of online games and member  
of a couple dozen gaming/hacking chats and calls

Futaba: D) just hitting puberty

Futaba: now imagine the sort of ‘talks’ Sojiro would  
have with me, given those very specific factors

You: ...hoo boy

Futaba: hoo, as you so rightly say, boy

Futaba: also, you aren’t gonna distract me from what  
we were talking about!

You: damnit

Futaba: its serious stuff, Akira

You: ...I know that

Futaba: like... even if you can’t find a therapist or  
something, at least talk to the other thieves

Futaba: it might help

You: No Way

Futaba: do you... not trust them?

You: it isnt that!

You: Futaba, we go into seriously deadly situations  
several times a week

You: Everyone on the team sees me as their leader, as the  
guy giving the orders and telling them what to do so we  
dont get killed or get caught by the cops or whatever

You: If they start thinking that I’m some weak idiot  
who can’t so much as tell a guy how he feels without  
freaking out, they’re gonna start trusting what  
I say less

You: They won’t mean to, but it’ll happen, and  
even just a few seconds of delay or doubt can lead  
to some life-threatening problems in our line  
of work

Futaba: ...i don’t think you’re giving them enough  
credit, but i get your point

Futaba: why are you okay talking about this stuff  
with me, though?

Futaba: I’m in just as much danger as the rest of  
you, and you’ve been talking with me about how  
much of a disaster you are for like

Futaba: pretty much ever since like the week after  
you guys helped me with my agoraphobia shit

You: no offense, but its easier with you cause...  
you’re kind of even more of a disaster than  
I am?

Futaba: ...yeah, that checks out

You: not in a bad way, just... i know you’ve been  
to places like this too, mentally speaking

You: so i guess i felt like you wouldn’t think less  
of me for getting bad like that either

You: plus, practically speaking, yeah you’re in  
danger like us too, but like

You: most of the time, you’re just as much of  
a leader in battle as I am

You: the life-or-death, moment to moment  
stuff doesn’t really apply

Futaba: hmm

Futaba: you’re right on all of that, yeah

Futaba: though for the record, i reserve the  
right to bring all this up again later, when ive  
had more time to think about it

You: i kinda guessed you would

Futaba: sharp as a tack, this one

Futaba: Alright, I’ll whip up a tutorial on how to find the really rare shit

Futaba: what are you looking for, btw?

You: well

You: I’ve gotten him most of the stuff he’s been  
looking at off and on for the past few months  
already

Futaba: dude...

Futaba: ...its been a week....

You: Yeppppppp

Futaba: ......................dude............................

You: Anyways

You: there’s this figurine of an old-ass Featherman spin-off  
character that Goro’s been loking up like, once every  
few months for the past few *years*

You: they only made a couple hundred of them,  
and they all sold out back in the 90s

Futaba: damn

You: yeah, so, I’d guess the only people selling that  
now are either grannys who don’t know what they’re  
worth, putting them up at garage sales and stuff

You: or secret, shady blackweb sites or  
whatever you were saying earlier

Futaba: darkweb, but yeah, you’re probably right

Futaba: damn dude

You: i know

Futaba: yeah, but just... damn

Futaba: how the hell are you affording all of this?

You: ...I had sorta grinded Mementos a bunch for  
like... ever since Goro and I became friends

You: and i was saving my cut of the earnings  
to take him out on a really nice date

You: buuuuuuut, i chickened out on telling him  
how i feel, much less asking him out

You: so im using that

Futaba: fuck akira, when you crush, you crush hard huh

You: its a problem!

Futaba: sure is bud!

Futaba: how much of that nest egg you got left?

You: still a fair amount

You: i was seriously saving up for a -while-

You: as long as this doesn’t end up being too much,  
i should be able to keep getting him stuff for a  
bit longer without any real problems

Futaba: you sure dude?

Futaba: darkweb auction shit is expensive as hell

Futaba: probably gonna have to run some more grinding  
sessions with everyone pretty soon if you plan on buying  
a lot of shit in there

You: I'm sure it'll be fine

You: i mean, ive been sending him a lot of stuff, but  
i still have some self-control

You: I'll buy him this one figure, and then maybe just

You: chill out on the gifts for a while

Futaba: sure jan

You: futaba, nobody is gonna get your memes or  
references or whatever except you,  
you know that right

Futaba: well yeah, but i laughed, so

\---

You: Hey guys

Ryuji: hey!

Yusuke: Hello

Ann: heya!

Futaba: yo

Makoto: This is getting a touch ridiculous

Makoto: But yes, hello

You: So

You: How free are you guys today?

Ryuji: ain’t got nothin goin on over here

Ann: same

Yusuke: Are you perhaps wanting to go to Mementos again?

Futaba: hm

You: I am, yeah

You: We have a couple requests to look into  
from the Phan-site

You: Plus it would be good to make sure we have  
enough funds in case of an emergency

Futaba: hm

Makoto: That sounds wise

Makoto: Give me a bit to finish up the homework I’m working  
on, and I can meet the rest of you at Shibuya station?

Ryuji: sounds like a plan

Yusuke: Indeed

Futaba: hm

Ann: uh, Futaba, you okay?

Futaba: oh, *i’m* fine

Ann: uhh... okay!

You: See you all there then!

-Akira signed out-

Futaba: coward

Ann: ??????

  
\---

It took a while for Goro to enact his investigation properly, for several reasons. First, he was just very busy overall, that always made it difficult to do anything that wasn’t strictly work related. Second, trying to find information online that people didn’t want found was not his strong suit- he was capable enough, but it was still a challenge. Third... 

...well.

Before he pulled open the door to Leblanc, Goro took a deep breath, and unbuttoned the jacket he had been wearing, very purposefully leaving it just open enough to display what was underneath; namely, the Feather Black t-shirt, the small assortment of rare chibi-Featherman pins from the short-lived, but very popular 4-koma spin off a few years back, and the fan-made, handmade scarf he had wrapped around his neck that, when unraveled, showed a tapestry of romantic moments between Feather Black and Feather Red- the ship that had captured his gay little heart since he was a kid.

It was absurdly, inordinately embarrassing, but it would work. Goro was certain of it. One way or another, this was the only way he would be able to figure out who exactly had been sending him so, so many gifts over the course of the past two weeks.

His reasoning went like this: After doing a bit of digging, Goro figured that only a skilled hacker would have been able to dig up where exactly he lived, or more specifically, it would take a skilled hacker to gather the sheer amount of details about where he lived that were scrawled onto the shipping label of each package he received. Goro knew, from how efficiently and totally the Thieves had countered the Medjed trouble Shido had cooked up, that they had to have someone with a talent for hacking on their team.

He had scheduled his visit to coincide with when whole group would all be gathered together, having waited outside Leblanc, camped out in the secluded little washing machine room opposite the cafe, watching until all the members he had managed to identify so far trailed inside. If he went in, wearing such unusual apparel, one of them would comment on it, which would inevitably lead to all of them commenting on it. Either one of them would slip, show some sign that they were the ones who had sent it all, or their hacker would hear, hopefully get curious, and do some digging on their own, and with all luck, he’d be able to follow up on any investigations the Thieves would subsequently do, and steal their lead- though Goro had a feeling that it was one of the Thieves themselves that was the culprit, so he’d likely not have to go that far. It wasn’t a flawless plan, but it was the best he could manage to come up with, and a true detective did whatever they could to follow the truth to its source. Even if this particular lead didn’t pan out, it was his duty to solve the mystery that had been put in front of him.

...and maybe it was more than that, or a lot less, depending on how you looked at it. There were a lot of possibilities as to who Goro’s mysterious benefactor could be, more than he could reasonably be asked to investigate... so in the end, wasn’t the reason he was chasing this particular thread at least partly out of a desire, a wish, more than it was a purely logical deduction? If Goro took the time to look inside his own heart, something he tried to avoid doing as much as he possibly could, he knew deep down that, as statistically unlikely as it was... out of all the possible culprits, even out of all the possible culprits amongst the Phantom Thieves, he did wish that it was Akira Kurusu who had been sending these gifts.

He wasn’t sure why he wanted that to be the case. Maybe because it would mean that Kurusu saw him as more than a rival, even when he had done so little to present himself in any other way? Maybe because Kurusu sending him rare, nerdy treasures meant that the dark-haired boy saw him as more than just his Detective Prince persona, more than the various masks he had been wearing for so horribly long, just to survive? Because if Kurusu sent him the sort of stuff that a normal, everyday closet otaku would love, it meant that he thought of Goro as just another guy, and might perhaps, if Goro was very very lucky, still see Goro that way when he inevitably learned the dark truth about him?

Because Goro had so, so stupidly fallen for the one guy he under no circumstances should have fallen for, and a buttload of very expensive gifts tailored specifically to Goro’s most privately-held interests was about as clear a sign as any that Kurusu was interested in him back?

Obviously, there were still problems with the whole scenario, the greatest of which being the huge invasion of privacy that it would have taken to get Goro’s address and figure out all his interests and most wished-for things. But then, hadn’t Goro been stalking Kurusu and all his friends since before they even met face-to-face? Wasn’t combing through Kurusu’s police file, without his consent, not that different from Kurusu doing whatever he did to comb through Goro’s own private information?

That didn’t make it any less of a problem, of course, but at least it was, in theory, a problem that they both shared. Goro hoped that would make it easier to deal with. He didn’t really have any experience in any arena like this, so he really had no idea how any of this worked, outside of how it was portrayed in fiction, but it made a sort of logical sense, at least.

That was, assuming that Goro’s hope played out, and that it really was Kurusu behind all of this. 

No time like the present to try and find out, anyways.

He took the last few steps towards Leblanc’s door, and swung it open. It was livelier inside than usual, the entirety of the Phantom Thieves scattered about the cafe’s booths, their dark-haired leader standing behind the counter, cleaning some glassware as he watched over his friends. Most of the Thieves didn’t seem to notice Goro come in, but Kurusu did, and he flashed him that warm, slightly soft smile he always gave Goro.

Goro’s heart fluttered in response, and he stomped on it a few good times to get it to calm down. He was here for an _investigation_ (into his crush), it was time to be **serious** (about whether his crush had been sending him a bunch of really nice gifts that made him really happy and confused at the same time), not time to be all embarrassed and soft (because his crush was a big ol cutie).

Honestly. 

With the gentle chatter of the gathered thieves as a much more pleasant white noise than the trash TV shows Sakura typically let run in the background, Goro calmly took his usual seat at the counter, giving Kurusu a pleasant smile as the thief put his apron on and made his way to the coffee machines.

“Same as usual, Akechi?” He asked, the deep timbre of his voice sending a little thrill up Goro’s spine, as it always did.

“Naturally,” Goro brightened his smile a few notches higher, then looked off to the side as Kurusu began doing whatever magic he did to make the drinks he served Goro always taste so perfect. Carefully, timing the movement to match when Kurusu glanced away from the coffee machines and towards Goro, Goro stretched his arms out above his head, letting his coat shift and open more with the movement. With any luck...

“Hmm.” Kurusu made a small, curious noise, just loud enough for Goro to hear over the cafe’s din and the noise of the coffee bubbling and steaming about. A good enough start.

Goro turned towards him, cocking his head to the side slightly, playing it very casually, very gently. “Something on your mind?”

The dark-haired boy gave Goro one of his best smiles, the ones that Goro liked to remember late at night, to help him feel warm and comfortable enough to sleep, and waved his hand. “It’s nothing. Just noticed you changed up your style.”

“Hm?” Goro blinked, purposefully playing the fool a little, then looked down, as if he was just remembering what he was wearing. “Oh yes, how silly of me. I had forgotten that I unbuttoned this earlier, ha ha...” He blushed, long since having mastered the skill of doing so on command, for the benefit of his cute-boy-obsessed fans. “Hah, I find myself a touch embarrassed now.”

Kurusu’s smile grew more, and he did the wave again, as if trying to physically brush Goro’s worries away. “Sorry to bring it up. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, though, you look good. It suits you.”

Oh god, now Goro was blushing for real. At least Kurusu wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, with all luck. He looked away, and couldn’t help himself from self-consciously tugging his jacket a little more closed around him. “...thank you, Kurusu. You’re very kind to say so.”

There was a brief silence between them, as Kurusu finished preparing Goro’s coffee, and Goro tried to get himself together. Eventually, a hand appeared in Goro’s field of vision as Kurusu set down his cup, and Goro looked back up to meet that smile again. “All yours.”

“Thank you... again.” Goro said, though to his shame it came out as more of a flustered mumble. He sipped on the coffee, and his nerves instantly started to relax, soothed at the wonderful taste and warmth.

When Goro came back to his senses a moment or two later, Kurusu was still standing there, gazing at him, then blushing slightly and looking away when he was caught. _Very cute,_ Goro thought, _And very suspicious._

“So, uh,” Kurusu began, obviously trying to change the subject. “If you don’t wanna talk about it, that’s okay, but what brought on the, uh, change in fashion?”

A perfect opener. Wonderful. Goro put his fingers to his chin, as if he was considering whether to share what he was about to share, then sighed. “It’s rather strange, actually... though I suppose there’s no real harm in letting you know. Recently, I’ve been... the recipient of a strange influx of packages.”

“Packages?” Kurusu asked, leaning forwards to rest his forearms on the bar.

“Yes... it started a couple weeks ago, with someone sending me a... well, a figurine I’ve had my eyes on for some time. Featherman, as you can likely guess,” he gestured at his clothes, and Kurusu smiled, nodded. “Ever since then, almost every day, I’ve been getting more and more gifts, all lifted straight from the various wishlists I’ve been keeping for the past several years.”

As he spoke, Goro noticed with a deep satisfaction that the chatter of the Thieves behind him started to quiet down, as more of them started listening in on what he was saying. Kurusu, to his credit, barely seemed to be flustered in the slightest, still looking perfectly calm, perfectly put together- though he was definitely taking pains to look surprised, curious. “Every day, huh? That’s... a lot of gifts. Sounds kind of overwhelming, honestly.”

Goro laughed, though likely not for the reason Kurusu thought. Ohhh, you are a sly one, Akira Kurusu. _Clever as always, playing the devil’s advocate against yourself, whether its your Phantom Thievery, or this... Phantom... Gifting?_ Goro had to put in some effort to hold back making a confused face as the phrase occurred to him- minus the trademark calling cards, that was exactly what this was, wasn’t it? Curious... and curiouser still that Goro was already assuming that Kurusu was the culprit here, come on now, jumping to conclusions like that was not what a Detective Prince should do!

Still, now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. He shook his head as his laugh faded. “I wouldn’t say overwhelming. Surprising, certainly, but... it’s been quite nice, if I’m perfectly honest. I get sent rather fatuous gifts from my fans fairly frequently, but... I’ve never gotten gifts this personal before.”

Kurusu frowned, looking concerned. “Never?”

Goro shook his head again, not having to put on much of an act to look a little depressed at the thought. “My mother and I were far too poor to afford anything like that, though she did try her best. After... well, afterwards, most of the foster families I was sent to either saw me as a burden, or were too negligent to care much about getting to know my likes and dislikes. My classmates saw me as someone to be mocked and excluded... and ever since I escaped that life and came to Tokyo, I’ve only ever been the Detective Prince.”

“...and the Detective Prince isn’t allowed to like tokusatsu shows?” Kurusu asked, still frowning.

“Oh, most certainly not,” Goro smiled sadly. “An idol musn’t ever give off even the vaguest otaku-like aura. The consequences would be terribly dire.”

“...I’m sure.” Kurusu mirrored Goro’s sad smile back at him now.

A few moments passed, a few sentiments and feelings passing silently between the two of them, before Goro got too flustered at the thought of just staring idly and satisfiedly at Kurusu and turned to the side, started speaking again. “A-at any rate, my apartment is now becoming more and more filled with figurines, posters, shirts, pins, buttons, wall scrolls, all sorts of fan-made memorabilia... its quite extensive, and from what I’ve found by researching the items I wasn’t already familiar with, quite expensive too.”

Behind him, the Thieves were almost totally silent now, all of them tuned into the conversation, and by the way Kurusu seemed to be purposefully keeping his eyes trained on Goro, or more accurately, avoiding catching the eyes of any of his friends behind Goro, at least some of them were likely giving Kurusu some kind of Look. Interesting.

“...so you’ve just been getting expensive Featherman merch without end for a couple weeks? The life of a celebrity, huh...” Kurusu was trying for a casual, off-the-cuff quip, but Goro saw right through it, the little shit was absolutely trying to bait Goro into reassuring him- or rather, reassuring his friends- that it wasn’t all pricy gifts. Very, very interesting.

“Oh, it isn’t _all_ expensive merch,” Goro laughed lightly, waving his hand. He had no reason to try and thwart Kurusu’s efforts to save his skin from his friends, or whatever he was trying to pull, especially not when it only led to the boy incriminating himself all the more. “A great deal of it was simply very hard to find items, or fan-made things that were made in limited quantities, things like- well, like this scarf,” he lifted the scarf up slightly with a smile. “Or plushes, light novels, d- uhm... doujin...” he muttered the last one more quietly, his embarrassment at the thought of being sent rare, lewd Black/Red doujinshi more real than it was performative.

Kurusu just whistled in response, looking impressed, but not shaken or bothered in the least. If Kurusu was truly the guilty party here (he had to be he _had_ to be) then his unflappable performance was remarkable. Truly, truly remarkable... the more Goro learned about Kurusu, the more sides of Kurusu he saw, the more he was starting to think that the two of them were far more similar than they were different, both practiced liars, both accustomed to wearing their masks superglued onto their skin, both clever and sharp and quick and always ready with something sneaky, something unexpected.

Briefly, Goro wondered if Kurusu had similar thoughts, the more he learned about Goro.

“Man... whoever’s sending this... well, it’s pretty sweet to get so much stuff you seem to like, but this girl sounds like a real stalker, huh?” He rose up from where he had been leaning on the counter, shifting instead to rest his arms behind his head, very anime-teenage-boy.

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Goro demurred, unable to completely hold back his smirk. Kurusu wasn’t even being subtle about his attempted diversions now; calling the gift-sender a girl and a stalker was about as basic a tactic as there could be. Goro had no qualms cutting it to pieces. “She- or he, it’s never good to assume when crafting a theory, Kurusu-kun. But yes, I don’t believe whoever it is that’s been sending me all of this is a _stalker_ , per se, at least not in the traditional sense. They’ve likely done some digging online to find the relevant information about me, but I’m very careful while I travel about the city, and how I express myself online, whether that’s on my professional accounts or elsewhere. Whatever they’ve been doing, I doubt it’s _too_ intrusive... unless you know more than I do on the subject, Kurusu-kun?”

He shot the Thief his most charming, dazzling smile, and while Kurusu didn’t react with anything more than a small laugh and a smile of his own, Goro could see the frustrated annoyance bubbling behind his eyes. It was... just delicious. Goro didn’t really get why, or at least he hadn’t dedicated enough time to trying to figure out why, but somehow, whenever he saw that dangerous little glint in Kurusu’s eyes, or saw the wild, crazed, murderous grin the thief wore in battle, while Goro was stalking the Thieves in the Metaverse, something slick and thick and wonderful coiled up in Goro’s guts.

...oh, and he had a boner too. That... explained that rather neatly. Hmm.

Perhaps Goro would look into a new genre of lewd doujins later, when he got home.

For now, though, Goro let himself revel in the look in his rival-crush’s eyes, not bothering to brake off their wordless, intimate staring contest this time, enjoying it far too much to worry about how it would look to the others in the room. Distantly, he thought he heard some of the Thieves muttering to one another, and even a whispered, disappointed little “Wow...” from somewhere behind the counter, which didn’t make any sense, but Goro hadn’t been getting much sleep recently, so it was probably just one of his auditory hallucinations or something.

Eventually, Goro got his fill of Kurusu’s unique, wonderful energy, and broke away from his gaze. He downed what was left of his coffee, and started getting to his feet, pulling out some yen for the drink. “At any rate, I really ought to be going, I only meant to stay for a little while. Far too much work to catch up on tonight,” he let out a brief chuckle. “And perhaps another piece of Featherman merchandise to unbox and admire. Who can say?”

Kurusu laughed a little too at that one, somewhat knowingly. “Aha... make sure you get some sleep, too. Don’t want you staying up all night, staring at your wall of Feather Blacks.”

Goro laughed again, shaking his head in amusement. “Oh, you’ve nothing to worry about there, Kurusu-kun.” He finished gathering his things, and looked up to lock eyes with the Thief one last time. “It’s the Feather Red ones that I’d waste my night mooning over the most.”

With that, he picked up his briefcase and made his way back out of Leblanc, heading towards the train station with a new skip in his step. This was _excellent_. So, so many signs pointed now towards Kurusu being the one behind the torrent of gifts- and the _look_ in his eyes at the end there, that was practically a confession in and of itself. His hypothesis was right on the goddamn money.

Now, all Goro had to do was craft some clever, wonderful way to force Kurusu to verbally admit his crime himself.

...Goro paused briefly, wondering for a moment why, exactly, he wanted so badly to catch Kurusu like this. There was his feelings for the man, and from the noticeable.... presence in his pants, those feelings might extend deeper inside of him than he thought, but Goro had always been a practical man. Personal matters had always taken a back seat to the far bigger, far more important fish that he had to fry on a daily basis. Honestly, he should be focusing on the whole Phantom Thieves problem, and Kurusu’s starring role in _that_ whole mess more than some silly anonymous gifts. He should be focused on his plans to destroy Shido, and ensuring that his cover doesn’t get blown before the big day in December. He should, above all else, not be wasting the past two weeks alternately hammering away at his keyboard, looking for any clues as to the identity of whoever had been sending him a seemingly endless supply of Featherman merch, and finding nice places in his apartment to display said merch in a way that caught the light nicely and made him smile whenever he wasn’t doing that.

Goro should be doing an awful lot of things, and he wasn’t. Instead, he was absolutely,undeniably fixated on this... and the only reasoning he could come up with as to why was... far too mortifying to admit to, even in the safety of his own head. Were he to look at this analytically, truly honestly, his obsession with proving Kurusu’s guilt in anonymously giving Goro a bunch of really nice, expensive gifts sprouted from the exact same feelings that Goro had been purposefully ignoring and shoving deep down inside himself for the past few months. A feeling that was, were he to analyze it properly, a lot more than just a crush and a few aroused flutterings of the heart. Something more significant, something that, if he let it, could lead his life in an entirely new direction just from the power it had over his soul.

...but it didn’t matter. Probably. All of that was likely irrelevant. A true detective knew that the simplest answer to things was usually the most correct one. Getting lost in an endless maze of confusing feelings and nonsense was a trap that a Good Detective like Goro was would never fall for. Sure, there may be some deep, psychological or sexual reasoning behind his fixation, or both, probably both, but in the end, that didn’t matter, because the simplest reason was the truest.

Goro was a detective at heart, and there was nothing in the world more satisfying to a detective than pulling a confession straight from the thief’s own filthy, gorgeous, dirty mouth. Haha, yes...

He chuckled to himself as he walked back to the train station, keeping it quiet enough so that passers-by wouldn’t hear, but letting a bit of that crazed, wild little feeling he kept locked away in his heart leak into the laugh all the same.

It was only a matter of time...

\---

Ryuji: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ann: Oh Akira...

Ann: Come on, Ryuji, its not that funny

Ryuji: DONT LET HER BULLSHIT YOU DUDE SHES LAUGHING  
LOUDER THAN I AM IRL

Ann: OH EFF OFF RYUJI

Makoto: oh boy...

Futaba: it is pretty funny, you gotta admit

Yusuke: I don’t see what’s so humorous about it.

Yusuke: Spending one’s hard-earned fortune on one’s  
desperate love of another

Yusuke: I find it quite romantic

Ryuji: DUDE

Ryuji: This guy spent enough yen to keep you in effin  
jagariko for LIFE

Ryuji: just because he was too much of a pussy to ask  
out his crush

Makoto: Ryuji...

Ryuji: its the truth!

Makoto: Well, yes, but you don’t have to say it like that

Ryuji: ugh, fine, sorry MOM

Makoto: ...

Yusuke: ...hm

Yusuke: You make a fair point, Ryuji

Yusuke: Akira, Ryuji is right. It would have been far more

Yusuke: Economical

Futaba: oh god

Yusuke: To have been too cowardly to ask me out, instead

Futaba: sDSLKFGJDFLKGSLD

Ryuji: ASDSASDFDSFGFSFD

Makoto: Oh dear...

You: ...you all get it out of your system yet?

You: ah

You: ...that’s a definite nope

Futaba: omfg akira its no fun roasting you if youre just gonna  
walk away from your phone the whole time!

Makoto: How do you know he’s been walking away from his  
phone

Futaba: cause hes too much of a hick to know to cover up his  
phone camera with tape

Makoto: ...what an extremely worrying thing to say.

Futaba: heheheheheheheheh

You: Futaba, you’ve been roasting me in private  
ever since i told you

Futaba: uh, yeah, and now you are Robbing these fine people  
of their chance to join in on the fun!

You: Oh my god...

Ryuji: yeah dude be thoughtful

Ann: instead of being so...

Ann: THOT-FULL

RYUJI: KDLJGSDKLG

Futaba: ...okay that was pretty lame

Yusuke: ...notful?

Yusuke: Ah

Yusuke: It seems I still have a ways to go

Yusuke: When it comes to mastering the ‘sick burn.’

Makoto: Akira?

You: ...yeah?

Makoto: While I’ll hold off on the... roasting

Makoto: You do know that I’m going to insist that you  
talk to Akechi about this

Makoto: We’re all going to insist that you talk to Akechi  
about this

Ann: Yeah! Don’t be intimidated just cause he’s a dangerous  
hottie

Ann: I bet he’s as much of a dork as the rest of us deep down

Ryuji: dude, the guy loves featherman

Ryuji: an effin kids show that hasn’t been good since the 90s

Futaba: a fact that Ryuji would only know were he also a fan

Ryuji: hey eff off my ma puts it on sometimes!

Futaba: mmhm

Futaba: sure

Yusuke: If I might comment

Yusuke: While Goro Akechi poses a very real threat to us,  
being the detective assigned to investigate our illicit activities

Yusuke: In recent weeks, whenever I have seen him visit  
Leblanc, his only interest has been chatting with you, Akira

Yusuke: And always about seemingly random subjects,  
as one would do with a friend

Yusuke: Or rather, with someone he cares about, and  
enjoys being around

Yusuke: While I have no experience on the matter, I think  
you have a good shot, were you to go for this

Makoto: And you will go for this

Makoto: And not just buy him more overpriced toys

Makoto: Right?

You: ...right.

You: Are you sure about all of that, Yusuke?

Yusuke: Positive.

Yusuke: His eyes follow your movements with such interest,  
that I have been tempted to immortalize the expression he  
wears at least a dozen times

You: ...alright.

You: I’ll try.

Futaba: ...does that mean we can’t pick on him anymore?

Makoto: Yes, Futaba.

Ryuji: aw man

Futaba: nuts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything's coming to a head... and I'm not just talking about Goro's pants, hoo hoo hoo...
> 
> But yes! For those who don't know, like me, since P5 was my first Persona game, Featherman is an in-universe tokusatsu show (think Ultraman, Power Rangers, that sort of stuff) that I believe first started as a major plot element in Persona 2, and has come back up every now and then in the games since then. Unless I missed something, it didn't really feature in P5, but it's been referenced in a lot of the fanfic I've read since getting into the series, and I think it's a great element to add to more everyday life stuff like this fic!
> 
> If you're jumping down here from the top notes, that's all the Featherman info I've got!
> 
> This part of the fic is... kinda the weakest part of it, imo? I like how it's turned out, but I had to do a lot of adding and clipping while editing it to get it up to my standards. That said, I do like how it's come together, and I super super like how the last chapter turned out, so look forwards to that!
> 
> The last part of this will go up next thursday, on 2/27! Also, if you enjoyed this, I posted ch 10 of my Childhood Friends AU longfic yesterday, [ which you can check out by clicking these words here! ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21227510/chapters/54528445) If you'd like to keep more up-to-date on my day-to-day writing progress, or just wanna hear about how good a game PQ2 is and how hype replaying it is making me for P5R, my twitter is [ @SevventhSteen! ](https://twitter.com/SevventhSteen)
> 
> Have a great week, and may dreams of two good boys kissing and smiling warmly at each other soothe you to many a restful slumber! See ya soon!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goro's plan to pull the truth out of Akira goes utterly awry, but in the best way possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A note for those who subscribed and got a notif via email- I've boosted this to 4 chapters, and by the time you read this, I've probably posted both of them, so don't forget to check that one out too! No warnings in this chapter either, just enjoy!

Two days later, Goro had come up with the Perfect Plan to force Akira to confess his guilt. It was flawless.

He had spent a while doing even more illicit hacking and reverse-engineering of the information of the labels on the Amazon packaging he had been sent, and had managed to pinpoint the account that had placed the orders as one that was almost definitely Kurusu’s. The geolocation where it the account was created matched up with the hometown listed on Kurusu’s file, the account’s name and email were innocuous enough but contained references to cats and social unrest, two of Kurusu’s known passions, and its order history matched up perfectly with every gift Goro had been sent.

It was as airtight a piece of evidence as he was going to get, and even if Kurusu somehow managed to wriggle his way out of the way of the truckload of evidence Goro had compiled, he had come up with a dozen other backup strategies to milk a confession out of the Thief regardless.

It was perfect. Flawless. Beautiful.

It was also ruined, almost immediately.

Goro was only a few steps away from the door to Leblanc when it swung open on its own, Kurusu himself seemingly being pushed outside by somebody within. Goro paused mid-step, confused and more than a little concerned, but before he could ask what was wrong, Kurusu turned to him, blushed very deeply, then closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and spoke in the least-steady voice Goro had ever heard from him.

“Hey Goro! Wanna go out on a date with me sometime?”

Goro almost fell over. He managed not to, but the sheer shock that went through his system at such a wildly unexpected question was one of the most intense feelings he ever had. Actually, on second thought, it must have been even more serious than pure shock; his heart rate had increased a worrying amount within a matter of seconds, he was suddenly sweating way more than usual, his breath felt tight and caught in his throat...

...he took a breath, as slow and steady as he could manage, and sighed, slowly, and more than a little defeated, because. well. There was only so far a guy like Goro could go when it came to trying to fool himself. He wasn’t an idiot, nor was he so illiterate that he had never read about people getting embarrassed or flustered or excited for romantic reasons before. He had tried to ignore it, tried very dearly to fight against his ever-growing feelings for Kurusu, for a lot of reasons, all of them very complicated and very messy. Even with everything that had been happening over the past couple weeks, all the packages, his slowly growing obsession with pinning the responsibility for said packages on Kurusu, everything that had gone on in his heart during their confrontation at Leblanc and the way his mind replayed and replayed every moment of said confrontation in the days following... even with all the evidence stacking up higher and higher that his feelings towards Kurusu might be something serious, he had done everything he could to stomp the warm, fuzzy mess that was his heart back down into his chest where it belonged.

But, well. There’s only so far a detective could run from the truth. And there was only so much Goro could do to try and lie to himself before it became too overwhelmingly stupid a task for him to bear.

Eventually, even someone as twisted and messed-up as he was had to be honest.

He opened his eyes, and tried his best to hold back a flinch. Kurusu looked truly miserable- Goro hadn’t known how long he had stood there, eyes closed, face scrunched up, lost in thought, but it must have been long enough for Kurusu to graduate from nervousness to worry to dread. It wasn’t a good look on him.

Going for the sweetest smile he could manage- then changing his mind, and going for something softer, and a bit more genuine, a bit more true to the fluttering heat in his chest, Goro nodded. “I... would like that very much, Kurusu-kun. I’m free right now, as it happens- would you care to accompany me to... say, the crepe shop down the road here?”

If Goro had been uncertain about how he felt towards Kurusu, the sheer beauty and soul-shattering adorableness of the thief’s shift from dread to disbelief to hope to unfiltered joy took care of any and all remaining doubt. Akira Kurusu was very attractive, and very cute, and even someone as emotionally constipated as Goro couldn’t ignore how the sight of Kurusu smiling made his weary soul take flight.

“...that sounds... really, really nice, yeah. Let’s go,” Kurusu took a few steps in the direction of the crepe place Goro had mentioned, then paused. He looked back towards Goro, blushing an even more ruddy red now, and reached out his hand. “Uhm, if this is a date, you ought to call me Akira, if that’s alright.”

Goro felt himself get all blushy at that, which was ridiculous for so many reasons, and yet he suspected, in the back of his mind, that it would only be on of the first in a long line of ridiculous reactions he’d have to simple things Kurusu- simple things _Akira_ would do. He took Akira’s hand, and nodded. “...quite right, Akira. And you can call me Goro, of course.”

The helpless little smile that Akira wore upon hearing that sent Goro tumbling into embarrassment and flailing admiration yet again. “Okay, Goro.”

Hand in hand, they headed off down the street.

If Goro strained his ears, he thought, just possibly, that he could hear a whole lot of muffled, excited cheering coming from within Leblanc, behind them. Sakura must have turned on a sports game or something.

\---

A handful of minutes later found the two of them standing inside of Yongen-Jaya’s singular crepe shop. It was a nice place, if, like most shops in Yongen, pretty small on the whole, with only enough space in the customer-side of the shop for three tables and a couple of booths. Still, it had a homey, mon-and-pop kind of atmosphere to it, and more importantly to Goro, a massive menu board hanging over the front counter. 

Goro let his eyes wander over the couple dozen or so options for crepe types, batter flavors, filling, toppings and the like, pondering carefully what he might be in the mood for- and what might be an appropriate thing to order on a date as well, that added all sorts of new considerations to the mix...

A date. Goro felt himself blushing again just thinking of the word. Here he was, coming all the way to Yongen so he could pull a confession out of Akira like a pair of pliers to so many teeth, and once again, the man managed to surprise him with a totally different kind of confession. He was honestly pretty off-balance now. Goro had never _been_ on a date before, much less a date with somebody he actually might have been harboring a massive crush on for several months, much, _much_ less a date with somebody he might be forced to betray and trap and kill in the not-too-distant future.

Before, that thought had been most present in Goro’s mind as a reason to shove down and ignore any warm, buttery feelings he got when he was around Akira. Now, and moreso with every passing second, Goro was feeling more and more sickened by the idea of ever doing anything to harm this surprisingly soft man.

Perhaps...

“You know,” Akira murmured, shaking Goro out of his thoughts. Goro glanced over to his side, seeing Akira stare up at the menu board too, eyes cloudy with thought. “I’ve always had a pretty big sweet tooth. Got told a ton by my parents how un-manly it was or some bullshit, then when I got here, Mo- uh, my friends kept telling me how I 'don’t look like the type who’d go for a crepe.' Weird, huh?”

Goro shook his head, feeling more than a little sad at hearing that. “Depressing as it may be, not a word of that is very weird or surprising to me, frankly. Liking sweets is perfectly natural, yet everything in life has to be gendered or judged by some arbitrary rubric in our society. Even something as simple as ordering a crepe comes with a hidden cost...”

Akira raised an eyebrow at him, or rather Goro assumed he did from the way he shifted his stance and glanced sidelong towards him, Goro’s eyes currently cast down as flashes of memory played in his head. “You’ve struggled with that stuff too?”

“Well, sort of,” Goro laughed, a little bitterly. “In truth, I’m far more of a fan of savory foods- I can’t stand spice, never got exposed to it enough as a child to build up a tolerance, but I’ve always been weak to a good donburi or some well-crafted sushi. And yet...” He looked up at the board, detailed and complex, yet very familiar to all the ones Goro had visited across Tokyo. “Once I started going by the Detective Prince moniker, it suddenly became terribly important that I project a soft, cutsey, idol-type persona to my fans, or at least that was what I was told by my superiors in the Tokyo PD publicity department. Having those delicious curries you and Sakura-san make has been the first time in some time that I’ve gotten to enjoy something rich and savory on my own terms, outside of the occasional sushi outing with Sae-san.”

“Shit...” Akira murmured, Goro looking over just in time to see him start to twiddle with his hair nervously. “I didn’t realize just how much pretense went into all of that... uhm, we don’t have to go _here_ of all places for our date, if you don’t want. I know it’s the closest date-type spot, but if you’d rather-”

Chuckling a little, Goro put a hopefully soothing hand on Akira’s shoulder, cutting the boy off mid-panic-ramble. “I don’t _dislike_ sweets, Akira, don’t worry. I wouldn’t have suggested this place if I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy myself. There’s still plenty of options here for someone whose sweet tooth is a little less sharp than most.”

He gave Akira a more careful, considering look, noticed for the first time how tense the other boy seemed compared to usual, how nervous he must be, even... scared? Well, Goro could understand that well enough, the instant he stopped thinking about the moment-to-moment practicalities of how to make the date go well, the storm inside his gut roared noisily back to life again. Even so, it was quite a contrast to how put-together and masterfully composed Akira typically was.

“...and for what it’s worth, as much pretense and performance as there is in my Detective Prince work, you seem to have more than your own fair share in that department, don’t you?” Goro spoke a little softer, trying to make his potentially harsh words sound gentler.

It didn’t seem to help much. “U-uh, what do you mean?” Akira looked even more nervous than before- ah. He must have thought Goro was referring to how he hid his Phantom Thief business with his mild-mannered student act. That definitely was something they were going to have to deal with at some point, but not right now by any means.

“Like you said, to your friends, you have to act the strong, silent type.” Patting Akira’s arm again, Goro returned his eyes to the menu board, letting them drift across the options as he spoke. “To your classmates, you have to act gentle, harmless, repentant for crimes you did not commit. In public, you have to keep that proud, naturally rebellious head of yours turned down, for fear of gathering unwanted attention. Even to those closest to you,” he turned back to Akira, giving him a sympathetic smile. “You have to pretend to dislike the things that bring you happiness. Quite the horrible world we live in, to force so much artifice on us all.”

“...yeah.” Akira nodded, his eyes a little sparkly, more than a little emotional. It was pretty cute, and Goro realized two things at the same time: 1) that as much as Akira was capable of matching Goro point for point in an intellectual or philosophical debate, when the boy was flustered, or embarrassed, or just had his guard down in general, Goro could talk circles around him without even having to try. And number 2) Goro realized that he very much liked the way Akira was looking at him after doing so, all impressed and touched, little stars sparkling in the gray of his eyes.

Combining those two realizations together, the thought occurred to Goro that he could take advantage of this newfound aspect to their relationship, if he was very careful, and very precise.

Hmm...

Goro held Akira’s gaze for a few more seconds, then patted his shoulder and turned back to the counter. “Why don’t you let me order for us, since I’ve got more experience with this sort of shop, and you can find us a table.” He shot Akira a reassuring little smile. “Do you have a flavor you’d prefer?”

“Oh, uh, okay,” Akira didn’t seem too opposed to the idea. “Chocolate, I guess. Thanks, Goro.”

He turned to go find them somewhere to sit, and Goro stepped forwards to ring the little service bell on the counter, an employee stepping out from the kitchens in the back to take his order.

When he was done, Goro went and joined Akira in the booth he had grabbed, sitting across from him, and they started chatting about less heavy topics while their food was prepared- school, annoying teachers, world events, cute cat pics they had seen online, the usual assortment of random stuff they chatted about. It was nice- shockingly nice, really, to be doing something as very clearly romantic as a date, and still be able to relax into the bond they had built up over the last few months. For the first time, though there were a million other complications that could get in the way, Goro let himself think that were they to last through the end of the year, they could last for a hell of a long time, if their relationship was just this, but with romantic stuff sprinkled throughout.

After a bit, their food came, smelling fresh and absolutely delicious. Akira’s eyes were practically sparkling again at the sight of his crepe; chocolate batter stuffed with the works, mint chocolate ice cream, long straw-cookies, little blocks of dark, milk, and white chocolate sticking out of the top, and even a few mini-macrons to finish it off. Goro’s wallet definitely felt quite a bit lighter after ordering so many toppings and add-ons, but the look of pure, childish joy on Akira was so much more than worth it.

For himself, Goro had ordered a more traditional French crepe- a stack of huge, whisper thin pancake-type layers of delicately cooked batter, with a rich orange marmalade spread generously across each crepe’s surface. It smelled warm and citrusy and just a little sweet, and it was everything Goro had hoped it would be. He suddenly regretted not visiting all those proper French-style cafes he had been recommended, but just as suddenly he didn’t regret it at all, if it meant his first experience with this sort of thing got to be with someone whose company he truly, deeply enjoyed.

Akira raised his eyes from his dessert, and something he saw in Goro’s face made him soften and melt even more than he already had. It was really cute, but also really embarrassing. Fighting against the blush, Goro smiled and gestured towards their dishes with a soft “Itadakimasu.”

Akira didn’t seem to be able to do much but smile and nod before he dug in. Goro looked down to cut a slice of crepe for himself, but was interrupted just as he was finishing his slice by a surprisingly loud... well, there were few ways to describe it other than a moan from Akira.

He looked up, and saw Akira’s face scrunched up tight, a huge blush on his face, his spoon still sticking out between his lips. Goro could almost imagine him doing a childish, anime-like little wiggle of pleasure in his seat, but Akira managed to contain himself just barely enough to avoid that. Instead, he pulled his spoon slowly from his mouth, letting off deep little laugh-like noises of pleasure as he let the flavors of the crepe wash over him.

Admittedly, watching this felt extremely like Goro was watching porn in public, but he couldn’t exactly tear his eyes away either.

A few seconds later, Akira swallowed the remains of his bite down, and Goro felt his face heat up several dozen more degrees watching Akira’s throat bob and contract like that. He opened his eyes back up, and laughed- properly, genuinely laughed, deep from his belly. “I haven’t... I haven’t tasted anything that good in... maybe ever. Oh man...” When his eyes met Goro’s, they were sparkling, a little wet, a little emotional, and deeply, deeply happy.

Goro wondered for a moment if Akira hadn’t been shoving down his own true feelings even deeper than Goro himself did. The more you repressed something, after all, the more extremely it would pop back out when you finally took off the lid...

Akira’s laugh faded, but his expression didn’t, and he stared into Goro’s eyes, a big smile on his face. “Look at us, huh?” He said, little chuckles still eking out between his words. “A guy who people think is too cute to be as cool as he really is, and a loser who comes off as too manly to be the dumb, gay disaster he really is.” He shook his head ruefully, but he didn’t look sad, if anything he seemed like he couldn’t stop smiling, even if he tried. “We make quite the pair, don’t we?”

Goro found himself nodding, found himself smiling too, though not quite as widely as Akira was, yet. “That we do... I wouldn’t call you a loser, or dumb, or anything like that, though,” he admonished, and while his smile didn’t fade, it shrunk a little, and Akira blushed in embarrassment. “I’ve always found you to be everything a person could want in an intellectually stimulating partner... though, I’ll admit I didn’t think you were gay, if I’m totally honest.”

“No worries,” Akira reassured him, though his smile took on a slightly rueful tone. “I don’t really get why, but I guess being quiet and kind of nervous most of the time comes off as really straight to people?”

Goro shrugged. “I couldn’t say... I mostly thought otherwise due to your general... manliness, I suppose, though that’s a rather undefinable quality overall.” He stabbed a bite of his crepe, and chuckled a little as he brought it to his lips. “Well, that and the practical harem of girls eager to date you at any opportunity that you’ve surrounded yourself with.”

Akira laughed out loud again at that, blushing a lot, but seeming more amused than embarrassed. “It’s not like that... they’re my friends, and most of us have never really had friends before, so I guess we sort of over-correct and act a lot closer than normal friends do.” He shot Goro a grin. “Really, shame on you detective, letting yourself get fooled by ‘manliness’ and some anime tropes.”

Goro smiled as he swallowed his bite- which was delicious- then was silent for a moment. He took a slow breath through his nose, choosing his next words carefully. This might be the opening he had been looking for... “...well, if I’m totally honest, I mostly believed you to be heterosexual as a... defensive mechanism, I suppose.”

Akira cocked his head to the side at that, cat-like as always. “How so?” he asked, then took another bite of crepe-y goodness.

“Well...” Goro rested his chin in a hand, looked off to the side a little. “I was hoping against hope, so to speak. I’ve been disappointed a great deal throughout my life, and... well, I’ve found it wisest to undercut my expectations when it comes to things I want, or hope for.”

He swallowed thickly, and though he wasn’t looking at him, he could tell that Akira had stilled, quieted. “I’ve... been wishing very dearly that you might... at least have the potential to be as interested in me as I am in you for some time now... and so, to protect myself from the harsh backlash of disappointment, I suppose I subconsciously convinced myself that you were straight.”

Goro chuckled, shaking his head. “Though, that’s quite obviously been disproven now.” He returned his gaze to Akira, and gave him probably the most honest, heartfelt smile he had given anybody since his mother had died. “I have to admit, I’ve never been happier to have been proven wrong. Thank you, Akira.”

He had closed his eyes when he said that, the emotion and bare honesty of his words too much for him to face fully, but when he opened them... Akira looked **_incredibly_ **nervous, as if he had only been getting more and more and more and more anxious throughout Goro’s little speech- and more than nervous, he looked incredibly, _deeply_ guilty.

Goro cocked his head to the side, asked in an innocent-sounding voice, his eyes wide and soft, and even a little teary. “Do you... not feel the same? I-”

“I’m the one that’s been sending you all the stuff!!!” Akira shouted, his words all rushed together. He sounded more flustered than Goro thought he was capable of sounding, embarrassed and overwhelmed and physically unable to keep it inside any longer. “All the Featherman stuff, it was me! I got too nervous to ask you out so I had Futaba find your address and hack into your computer and I sent you a bunch of stuff you had on your wishlist or in your browsing history every time I wanted to say something about how I felt but I got too scared so I anonymously bought you stuff instead like a creep!” He panted, taking in as deep breaths as he could manage, having said all of that in one go-

But Goro interrupted him before he could speak again, just as unable to keep his own feelings in- though the feelings in question were in the totally opposite direction.

“I _knew it!!!_ ” He laughed, pumping his fist in the air as he chortled, the sweet thrill of victory coursing through his veins in much the same way he imagined hard, high-end drugs would. “Hahahahahaha!!!!! Oh, I _knew it,_ I knew it was you!”

Akira was looking at him, a little dumbfounded, his expression ever-so-slowly morphing to a perfectly even mix of amusement and something quite angry and rage-tinted, the sort of look someone had when they realized just how utterly they had been hoodwinked. “...you played me like a goddamn fiddle, didn’t you?”

Goro nodded _very much._ “I _absolutely_ did, Akira Kurusu. Oh, don’t get me wrong,” he held out a hand as the angry part of Akira’s expression started to slowly overtake the amused part. “What I said was the genuine truth. Calculated, of course, to make you think of all the things you’ve been hiding, and to engender massive amounts of guilt in the process, but wholly honest all the same.” He smiled at Akira, and this time he didn’t even have to try to make it deeply honest, and utterly beaming. “I truly have liked you for a long while now, though I tried to make myself believe that I didn’t, and I am truly happier than I’ve been in as long as I can remember that we’re on a date like this together. You captured my heart a long time ago, Akira Kurusu...”

He held the smile for a few more seconds, then allowed it to gain a sharp, nasty little edge- still genuine, still beaming, still right from the heart, but _all_ of his heart, even the nastier parts that he kept locked away behind chains and blue and black steel. “...you absolute _rube._ ”

Akira gave him a _look_ , and Goro burst out laughing yet again, unable to hold himself back anymore, high on victory and the warm, Akira-fueled bubbling in his heart and more joy than he’d ever felt before. Perhaps he was being a dick, perhaps he wasn’t making the smartest choices, but by all the gods above and below, he was being _honest_ , and he had never expected that to feel this motherfucking _good_.

“Well played, asshole, well played.” Akira gave Goro several slow, sarcastic claps, which only made Goro laugh all the more. He stood up a little in his booth seat and bowed to the applause, such as it was, which got a giggle from Akira, which got more giggles from Goro in turn. It was the silliest and most childish he had allowed himself to be in a long while, all mischievous and tricksy and a little nasty, but it felt _right_. Akira seemed to like it too, the smile he was giving Goro now a little sharper, more of an edge to it than the pure ones from before, but just as straight-from-the-heart. Goro even thought he could see a fragment of the kind of wild, violent grin he had seen Akira wear in the Metaverse when he was in the midst of battle, Goro hidden away in the shadows, watching enraptured from a distance.

Except he didn’t have to hide in a dark corner to see it now. 

Goro realized, then, how it felt to have something that he would burn down the entire world for, if it meant he got to keep Akira by his side.

“Well, I guess we were both being kinda sneaky,” Akira mused once Goro’s laughter had finally died down. He didn’t seem annoyed by it, though, smile still there, if softer now. “So I guess we’re even, in the end.”

“Perhaps,” Goro chuckled. “Let’s make sure our next date features at least a little less subterfuge on both our parts, shall we?”

Akira blushed. “O-our... next date?”

His grin sharpened. “You heard me.”

Akira’s blush didn’t die down, but he smiled back at Goro, and nodded. “Alright then. It’s a promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna save the long version of my endnotes for ch 4, since I'm posting both of them today, but I did want to say that I've had the crepe that Goro had, and it's delicious, and you should all try and find somewhere that makes that style of crepe, my god. 
> 
> I love this chapter so much. Enjoy the epilogue!


	4. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tying up the loose ends, and setting down their roots.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of plot, a lot of soft shit incoming. Enjoy~ 
> 
> Also, for those who are subscribed and got an update notif via email, I've posted both this chapter, and chapter 3 together on the same day! Make sure to check that one out first, if you haven't read it yet!

???: Yo, dork detective

???: dont ignore these, answer me

???: i know youre done with your little   
date, akira just came back

???: hey

???: hey, listen

???: hey

You: ...who is this?

???: fucking finally

???: jesus

???: my name.. is not important

You: It really is.

???: fuck, i guess you’d get my number  
eventually, at this point

???: this is Futaba, Sojiro’s kid

You: Ah, the one responsible for hacking into   
my personal data, at Akira’s behest

You: How lovely to make your acquaintance at last.

Futaba: yeah yeah, go suck yourself

You: Excuse me?

Futaba: you heard me

You: I’m not even sure that’s a phrase...

Futaba: uh-huh

Futaba: you wanna know what is a phrase?

_Futaba has sent an audio file_

You: ...how did you get a hold of this?

Futaba: oh, yeah, like I’m gonna just stop at   
snooping through the goddamn ebay history   
of the guy my brother has a crush on

You: Your brother?

Futaba: shit

Futaba: i mean, not legally, but the guy   
fuckin hates his parents

Futaba: once it gets closer to winter im   
gonna basically start holding sojiro’s bank   
account hostage until he agrees to adopt akira

Futaba: dork treats sojiro like his dad already anyways

Futaba: might as well seal the deal, yknow?

You: I’m... not quite sure that’s how   
adoption works

You: In fact, I know for a fact it   
isn’t, having gone through the   
process several times myself.

You: However, if that is something   
Akira wishes to pursue, I can point  
him towards some lawyers I know  
who specialize in this sort of thing

Futaba: ...damn, youve really got the gays   
for him as much as he does for you huh

You: ...I would offer my help in this   
sort of matter regardless of whether  
I “had the gays” for somebody or not.

You: ...but yes, I do.

Futaba: shit

Futaba: well that makes this harder and  
easier i guess

You: I assume you’re finally getting   
to the point?

Futaba: don’t push it, pretty boy

Futaba: ive got recordings of all of the  
last dozen or so calls between you and   
mister masayoshi shido

Futaba: i know youre the one behind all   
the mental shutdowns and shit, at his orders

Futaba: all i need to know is this

Futaba: did you kill Wakaba Isshiki

You: ...no, I did not.

You: I started working for the   
bastard shortly after that incident

You: From what I later learned, it  
seemed her death was an...   
experiment on his part.

You: He manipulated her work environment  
to become more and more stressful,   
driving her to become more and more  
obsessed with her research, until she  
learned how to get into her own Palace

You: It seems her subsequent mental   
shutdown was an accident of sorts, likely  
due to all the strain her workload had  
placed on her psyche, and whatever that   
would do to someone while they’re within   
their own Palace of all things.

You: I’ve... done my best to avoid those   
sorts of schemes in my time in   
Shido’s employ.

You: I haven’t always succeeded.

You: But I have tried.

Futaba: ...fine.

Futaba: Not like I have much choice but  
to believe you, at least until I can get   
my hands on mom’s research notes.

You: I can get you a copy of the files,   
if you’d like. Shido keeps his copies  
of her notes and papers under lock   
and key, but the rat fuck is a lot sloppier   
than he likes to think he is.

Futaba: That’d be... I’d appreciate that.

Futaba: Thanks, I guess.

You: It’s the least I can do.

Futaba: ...well, wanna do one step better   
than that?

You: ?

Futaba: shit, i was gonna be all cool and   
blackmail you into doing this, but youre   
a lot uh

Futaba: softer than i thought youd be

You: ...to be fair, I’m still riding   
quite high from the date

You: Had you spoken to me about  
any of this at any other time,   
I likely would not have responded   
very well.

Futaba: yeah, i kinda figured

Futaba: anyways

Futaba; You know about us, right?

You: About you?

Futaba: don’t play dumb, numbnuts

You: ...about you all being the Phantom   
Thieves?

Futaba: thats the one

You: Yes, I’m aware

Futaba: how long?

You: How long have I known?

You: Since shortly before Madarame’s   
change of heart, as it happens.

You: I happened to catch sight of you all   
during a routine inspection of his Palace

You: Or rather, of those that were members  
at the time.

You: It wasn’t very hard after that to   
identify them in the real world, and   
engineer a meeting between all of  
us at one of my interview tapings

You: Excluding Kitagawa, I suppose

Futaba: damn

Futaba: you got obsessed fast lil guy

You: I was not obsessed

You: It was simply prudent to keep   
as close an eye as was possible  
on a group that could threaten to disrupt  
my plans

Futaba: Your plans, huh

You: As you may have gathered from   
my tone when speaking about him,   
I do not serve that bald, scheming   
pile of shit with a smile on my face

You: I have a very intricate scheme to  
tear him down to the depths of hell,  
and all the faffing about you all have been  
doing in the Metaverse has gotten in the   
way of the aforementioned scheme  
more times than I can count, now.

Futaba: uh huh

Futaba: bet you aint as mad about it  
anymore though

Futaba: now that youve been playing   
tonsil tennis with the p.thieves’ leader

You: Ew?

Futaba: yeah?

You: Ugh.

You: ...you’re correct, though.

You: Other than the disgusting allusion  
to what I assume is making out?

You: We have not... gotten that far yet

Futaba: oh my god!

Futaba: you’re teenagers for fucks sake

You: It may be a foreign concept to  
you, but I think I will keep my privacy  
on this matter, at least.

Futaba: yeah yeah, whatever

Futaba: Point is

Futaba: You’ve gotta tell Akira

You: ...about my connection to   
the mental shutdowns?

Futaba: all of it, bucko

Futaba: mental shutdowns, psychotic  
breaks, whatever your plans are to   
fuck over the old the bald and the ugly

You: hah

You: Good one

Futaba: its not hard, the dudes a dick

Futaba: like, i barely had to hack into  
much at all to see how much of a dick   
he was

Futaba: fuckin shitty little goat-ass   
goatee

Futaba: lookin like he belongs on a   
designer cliff face chewing on a fuckin  
30000 yen can 

You: holy shit

Futaba: yeah, like i said, easy target

Futaba: you gonna tell him?

You: ...frankly, I was thinking of   
how to do that myself.

You: Well, mostly I was reveling in how   
well today has gone, but it has   
crossed my mind.

You: I will, yes.

Futaba: you better

Futaba: and uh

Futaba: you better not make akira   
sad

Futaba: or ill leak your porn searches  
and drain all your bank accounts

Futaba: and hack into your sm accounts   
and make you say sexist shit online

You: Fuck, alright!!!

You: I wasn’t going to anyways

You: Jesus

Futaba: yeah well

Futaba: just making sure

You: Mhm

You: I’ll talk to him later this week.

You: And I’ll make sure not to make  
him sad, or at least to do so as little   
as possible.

Futaba: ...alright.

Futaba: I’ll be watching, to make sure...

You: ...not watching too much, please

You: I’d like to keep some things private

Futaba: heheheheheh.......

You: Hm

You: I don’t like that.

\---

Goro took a step back from the shelf, and brought a hand to his chin as he looked over his work. It was... still not quite right. Groaning, he stepped back up to it, and started fiddling again. The Feather Black figures should be standing at slightly different angles instead of all facing in the same direction. The uniformity gave more of a highlight to the Black/Red tableau he had set up in the middle of the shelf, and had highlighted all the Feather Red figures on the shelf’s other side, but it made the Feather Blacks look too samey, took away the differences between each individual model, and what would be the point of having so many then?

He was still adjusting and fiddling with minutia- should this one be in a different pose, or maybe even facing away?- when the front door to his apartment unlocked and clicked open. It was a few rooms away, so the noise was faint, but unmistakable all the same.

All the more unmistakable was what followed it, a deep, resonant voice calling out “Honey, I’m home!”

Goro shook his head at how unbearably cheesy his boyfriend was, but called back dutifully all the same, “Welcome home! Give me just a moment, I’ll be right there.”

He finished up his adjustments to the fifth-from-the-left Feather Black, and once it was good enough, at least, headed out of his room and maneuvered around the boxes to the apartment’s living room, where Akira was busy taking off his school uniform and stowing away his various things. Goro snuck behind him just as he was unbuttoning his blazer, and wrapped his arms around Akira from behind, trapping him there and planting a kiss on the back of his neck.

Akira made a weird little sound, half alarmed, half turned-on, and wriggled around in Goro’s grip until he could face him properly. “Weirdo,” he quipped, fondly.

“Mmm, says you,” Goro teased back, and moved in for a proper kiss at the same time Akira did. They lingered like that for a while, arms wrapped around each other, trading slow, lazy kisses in the warm glow of the late-afternoon sun creeping in through the windows.

Eventually, they were interrupted by a loud beeping from the kitchen, and Goro broke off from the kiss in a panic. “Oh shit, the fish. Akira, move, let go,” he batted at Akira’s arms until the former thief let him go, laughing lightly at Goro’s misfortune.

Goro didn’t have time to linger, though, and rushed to the kitchen, popping open the oven to find... “Well, fuck.”

He plopped down onto the tile of the kitchen floor with a sigh, staring at the burnt mess that he had hoped to call dinner. Akira padded in behind him, a warm hand eventually finding itself in Goro’s hair. “Cooked too long?” 

Goro sighed again, covering his face with his hands, and trying to focus on the feeling of Akira’s fingers carding through his hair more than the sickly thrum of disappointment coursing through him. “Worse. I set the temperature too high to begin with. Now instead of some delicious baked salmon for dinner, we have...” he gestured blindly towards the blackened husk in the oven. “...this.”

He felt a soft kiss on the top of his head, then heard Akira close the oven door and turn everything off on the control panel. “Well, it’s a good thing I brought an extra big container of curry, then.”

“...assuming I’d mess up the cooking, were we?” Akira started to protest, but Goro held up a hand, sighing to himself as he got up off of the floor. “No, that’s fair. I am most definitely still in the Beginner phase of learning how to cook actual food, judging by how my past few attempts have gone.”

Akira shook his head and gave Goro a kiss on the cheek. “I just made a bunch so you could bring it with you to school for the next few days is all. I’ll just prep more tomorrow, so you can take enough home to make up for what we eat tonight.”

“...thank you.” Goro felt himself smile, despite how embarrassed he was. After everything had been dealt with in December, and Sae had helped Akira both stay out of jail and get himself emancipated from his parents over the next few months, Akira and Goro had agreed to try having dinner at their respective places every other day. Akira started his third year of high school at Shujin shortly after the Sojiro’s adoption papers had gone through, and Goro was redoing his own third year after missing so much with everything that had been going on, and both of their schedules were busy enough now to be prohibitive to going on as many dates as they would like.

Thus, the dinner agreement. Mondays, they’d eat at Leblanc, Tuesdays, Goro would order take out for them, or try and cook something himself, and so on and so forth. Most of the time, they had to work on homework while they ate, or one of their friends (Goro was still having a hard time believing that the other former Thieves were _his_ friends too now) would butt in and join them, but they still spent way more time together this way than they would have, otherwise.

Goro was happy, truly, truly happy, and got a boost of happiness at least once every day from being able to spend time with Akira. Having that kind of emotional regularity really made a hell of a difference in life.

Though that didn’t stop him from briefly feeling like shit for messing up a meal, or Akira feeling like shit for something that happened during his day. Whenever that happened, though, they always managed to pick the pick each other back up, just as Akira had done now.

Goro busied himself with cleaning the burnt mess out of the oven, while Akira reheated the curry and set the table. A few minutes later, and they were sitting next to each other, warm bowls of curry and rice in front of them, an episode of the new season of Featherman playing as they ate.

When they were done, Goro snacking on some sesame crackers and Akira sipped on an iced glass of orange soda while the episode finished, they snuggled together on Goro’s couch, chattering about what they thought of the new episode, where they thought the season would go from there, random bits of trivia Goro knew about the actors and more random, more illicit bits of trivia Futaba had told Akira. Turning Akira into a FeatherFan was one of the greatest accomplishments Goro had achieved recently, and he reveled in it daily.

Eventually, their conversation quieted down, Goro turning the TV onto a music station while they scrolled on their phones, soft jazz wrapping around them like the warm blanket that literally was wrapped around them. It was simple, and peaceful, and perfect.

After a couple minutes, Akira broke the silence, speaking quietly. “Hey Goro?”

“Mmm?”

“...what would you say if I said I’d been thinking about... maybe moving in?” Akira sounded pretty damn nervous and tangled up as he asked, and Goro chuckled a little.

Well, chuckled a little half out of amusement at how cute his boyfriend got when he was nervous, and half to cover the butterflies waking up in his stomach at what Akira had said. “Would you like to try that one again, dear?”

Akira huffed a little, then took a deep breath. “...I’d really like to move in with you, Goro. Would you... like that too?”

Goro looked up at Akira, head still resting on Akira’s shoulder. He blinked away the moisture that was starting to collect in his eyes, and tried for a teasing little smile. He mostly managed it. “Only if you don’t mind living amidst a bunch of Featherman merch.”

“Pfft,” Akira snorted. “Considering that I’m responsible for like, half of it being here, it’d be pretty silly for me to get all up in arms about it now.”

“...yes, it would.” Goro chuckled a little too, then grew more serious, though his smile didn’t fade. “Are you sure?”

“I’m really, really sure, Goro,” Akira was smiling back, softly. “I’ve talked with Sojiro, he’s cool with it, and I know we’d have enough space for all of my stuff, since I helped you pick this place out myself.”

He had. Goro had very much needed a new place to live, in the wake of Shido’s downfall, and with him, the downfall of the source of Goro’s rent every month. He had worked with Akira to find a new place, not too small, not too big, just a neighborhood or two away from Yongen, close enough so that Goro could bike over and see Akira any time he wanted.

Not that it’d be necessary to do that now, he supposed. “Then, I’d very, very much like you to move in with me, Akira.” Goro smiled. Being this honest was still a little hard, when he wasn’t riding high on adrenaline or excitement, but he was getting better, day by day.

From the warm, almost tearful smile on Akira’s face, Goro could tell they both were getting better, day by day. “Good,” he managed, then pulled Goro even closer, hugging him tightly.

Goro wrapped his arms around Akira in turn, and pressed a kiss to the side of his head, and not for the first time, and not for the last time, he felt purely, blissfully whole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was just a lovely fic to write, definitely one of my favorites out of what I've published so far. I hope you all enjoyed, and that it makes for a nice v-day celebration of our boys' love, even if it took a couple weeks to get all nice and posted~
> 
> Not really a whole lot else to say here, this was all very soft and good and nice and I really like how it turned out! Hope you all did too! If you liked this, and aren't aware of this already from the couple thousand times I've said it in other author's notes, I'm also working on a Childhood Friends AU longfic entitled [ 'Like The Moon, We Borrow Our Light,' ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21227510) the next update for which will be coming in a week, on 3/5, assuming I can get over this little spat of writer's block and finish the dang thing.
> 
> If you want to keep more regularly up-to-date on my writing, or just see me post my ship headcanons all over the place, my twitter is [ @SevventhSteen! ](https://twitter.com/SevventhSteen)
> 
> I hope your days are filled with the same kind of joy that Goro and Akira are filled with at the sight of each other, and I'll see you folks soon! X}D


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